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Thanks to Nana and Wob, we have no kiddo’s this weekend… ( or most of it.) It’s eerily quiet in the house with them not here???? almost alarmingly so. ????? Anyway we are helping the big dog move across the cotton patch this weekend, so all the boys are home Duda, and Witte arrive this morning. So it’ll be rockin and rollin this afternoon at the spain ranch. Thanks again Ma and Rob for watching the boys…

Well it’s always hard to come back from Vacation. This one was especially hard to return from, we had a great time and didn’t get to the rain barrel like we hoped but did get to do some general repairs to the house we are so lucky to stay in while we are there. The boys each got to reel in a fish and we spent most of the time on the lake. Jane and I did get to have a night out to ourselves so what did we do we went and rode roller coasters. (needless to say we both remember that we are over 30) the return flights were long to say the least and the 4 hour lay over in Charlotte Douglas  was an adventure with too very tired boys that didn’t want to leave  pop-pop’s. The one thing the lay over did provide was a chance to see our friend Mathiew (he lives inCharlotte) before he goes off to the desert again for 90 days. (Come home safe) After vacation we have been spending most of the time in dad’s pool and catching up around the house and at work. We will build somethings soon and if you want to check out some pictures from Vacation go here.

It’s hard enough to go on vacation with 2 boys under the age of 4, but when you get the experience of flying out of a small airport at 7:45am and can’t sleep the night before it becomes an adventure… We’ll see how our adventure goes we leave for Pop-Pop’s in Arkansas this morning. The bad thing is not only did I sleep badly but so did Jane.

Wish us luck and there will be some building going on while we are there. I know we are at least going to be putting up a rain barrel system…

Fathers day always used to be a day when I hung out with my dad and did all kinds of fun things. Now it’s my turn to spend the day with my boys and my dad. My dad has always been one of closest friends as all of my friends found out my dad being well older then most dads he never shows his age. My dad will be 78 this year and some days doesn’t act a day over 21. (sometimes 18) All the time I have folks come up to me and say “Man your dad is awesome” I always reply with “yep that’s my dad.” my dad immigrated here from Norway in 1954.  He grew up and was a teenager in German occupied Norway.  A few weeks ago when I got a new HDTV we sat and reflected on some of the things that he had seen throughout his life. It was a very surreal moment for me and  it reminded me of how lucky I am to still have him around in my life. I get the pleasure of having him live around the corner and he gets the pleasure of seeing his grandson’s as often as he wants. It’s funny how things repeat themselves my mom took a picture of me playing legos with my FarFar (Norwegian for Fathers Father) and my dad was in amazement. I now get to live that same experience with my kids. I get to see him do things with them that just amaze me…

So to My dad “Happy Father’s Day I love you!”

Well this memorial day will be one that we will remember for a while. No real building this weekend instead we had a yard sale in the rain not too profitable but we did make a little cash. During our yard sale we found a lost Maine Coon kitty and he will be our house guest until his vet opens on Tuesday. He is very sweet and unfortunately has been completely declawed. Oh to his defenselessness is why he is our house guest to protect him from the neighborhood kittys.

Well on to the big news of the weekend (other then Jane’s ribs last night), We have a new member of the family. Miss Savannah has arrived from her home in Wilmington. She is 100% Maine Coon and the sweetest cat we have ever had. She even tolerates the boys, and their non-gentle affection.

This weekend the weather is going to be great. We have to go grocery shopping today, which means a trip to Greenville but other then that it will be siding installation for us today. The boy’s slept extra late today which was nice, when I say late I mean 8:00am. So we’ll see what kind of building trouble we can get into today.

Today is Mother’s day, which is both bittersweet and fun for me. See I have my wife as a mom, and her mom, so I do get to have some fun. On the other hand I lost my mom in 1997 before I was married and before I had my boys. She would have loved to known them and watch them grow. My wife is a great mom to the busy builders. She gets to stay at home and nurture them and watch them grow. So last night we had a nice quiet dinner out and today she gets to sleep in. That’s what she asked for, I tried to get the boys and go get her presents but she said no. Later today we will take the boy’s over to her mom’s (AKA. nana) and let them spend some quality play time with Nana. they got the pleasure of putting them to bed last night, but I thought they might like some play time.

So to all the mom’s in my life Happy Mother’s day.

Well we are trying to keep with the going green theme, we have done the compact fluorescent light bulbs, built our own recycling can so that we don’t forget to recycle just because we have to carry it outside, we have adjusted our thermostat 2 to 3 degrees for the season, we are growing a garden and we are trying to lower our carbon foot print by driving less until we can get a better family car for the environment. Well for me I wanted to do more, a few weeks ago I posted about a rain barrel project that the city should do for the environment and an increase in revenue. Well if I’m going to propose it I thought I better go out and get one so that I can say “hey I did it and these are my results”.

So while getting our garden mulch at Lowe’s, Jane said why don’t you get a rain barrel so we don’t have to pay to water the garden. Secretly she just wanted the gutters put back up and she knew I would do it right away if i had a cool use for it. We bought the Fiskars rainwater collection system 52 gallon barrel. More information is available here.

So yesterday we put the gutters back up with some changes so that they all flow into the single downspout to be collected by the rain barrel. I will be collecting rainwater from aproximately350 - 400 sq ft of roof in to my 1st rain barrel. it should take less then .50 and inch of rain to fill my 52 gallon rain barrel. Installation was easy and if I was installing it only and not putting my gutters back up at the same time it would have been a 20 minute process. The directions were easy to follow.

Here is a picture of the fininshed product.

We are going to be getting some rain tonight I will let you know if we fill it up or not.

Update:

It took about an hour’s worth of steady rain to collect 52 gallons of water.

Well Fred has finally gotten the siding removal project underway which means I get wood siding for the playhouse. The boys and i got to start putting the siding on the front of the playhouse today.

Pictures coming soon.

FYI- playhouse doors and 3 year olds don’t mix. Jane had to remove the door a couple weeks ago because my oldest troublemaker liked to close the dog and his brother in the playhouse. So the end result was the loss of the door.

Well after a few “yucky” weekends the weather has turned beautiful and sunny. The boys and I got to do a fun project yesterday. My mother in law’s deck only had a railing around it so we were constantly having to watch the boys to keep them from falling 6 feet and goto the ER. Well she managed to salvage 30 1×1’s that we could use for the railing to keep boys and Jack Russell’s from going over the edge. So in trade for building the slats and mounting them Jane and I get a night out without kiddo’s and having to put them to sleep first.

Dad Hard at Work Before After

Of course i had my helpers who played and helped so hard that nobody made it thru the bedtime stories. Thanks ma.

For more pictures and information click here.